


Amid The Falling Snow

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Series: Eirlyssa's 2018 Bingo Fills [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Civil War Team Iron Man, Genius Tony Stark, M/M, Not a lot but it shows, Pre-Slash, Pro Igloo Building, Protective Bucky Barnes, Snowed In, Survival, Talking, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 07:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16488491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: When an enemy is trying to target Bucky, things go wrong and he is transported into a frozen wasteland. Fortunately, he's not alone.He did still want to talk to Tony Stark about some things, after all. And it helped the guy was good to have in a survival situation, too.





	Amid The Falling Snow

**Author's Note:**

> My fill for the Tony Stark Bingo 2018 A2 square: Snowed In.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

The Avengers Alarm dragged him out of his thoughts, soon followed by Steve sticking his head into the room. “Time to get suited up, Buck.” By now, he didn’t need the regular reminder that he was one of the Avengers, but it had sort of become a new tradition between the two of them that was comforting to Bucky.

Things had changed a lot since what people had taken to calling the Avengers’ ‘Civil War’, and Bucky had come out of it all surprisingly lucky. King T’Challa, after spending two days trying his hardest to kill him, had regretted his actions enough to try to help them out instead. The end result had been that Steve’s friends had been allowed (temporary) sanctuary in his country, while people worked on making sure Bucky’s trigger words could never be used against him again. During that same time in Wakanda, he had received a new arm - a detachable one, which he was beyond relieved about. It wasn’t HYDRA’s arm, but it still brought back enough memories that it helped him to sleep without it on.

Some months in and Bucky was as mentally healthy as he was likely going to be. And then the news came - if they signed the amended Accords, they would be pardoned and able to returned to the United States.

They had argued for days, and Bucky was honestly surprised. The Accords were a far better deal than, say, trying to join the Army back in the ‘40s, but Steve raged against them as though it were indentured servitude. King T’Challa had argued in their favor, however, and there had been Wakandan lawyers working on explaining everything to Steve and his friends twelve times over because they couldn’t stop thinking the Accords were somehow evil and responsible for the ‘Civil War’. Bucky mostly watched in astonishment, his signed copy of them already in King T’Challa’s possession, and was relieved that no one dragged him into the argument.

Returning to the United States was bittersweet, and Bucky still wasn’t sure he deserved to be there and pardoned. It was even odder to be living in the Avengers Compound, along with the people he had ended up fighting against in Leipzig. Some others only came in occasionally, no doubt busy having lives outside of being heroes. And during all of it, Steve and the others tried their best to keep Bucky away from Tony Stark.

Not that he would have approached the man himself - although, okay, he had thought about it a few times because he _did_ want to apologize. But Steve mostly seemed worried that Stark would try to hurt him again, and Bucky knew that the argument that he would kind of deserve it would result in Steve arguing until he was red in the face.

All Bucky wanted was for things to be less of a constant fight.

So he stayed away, and watched from the side as Steve and his friends eyed Stark distrustfully the few times he was around them. The favor was returned by Rhodes and Vision, as well as the new faces Stark had managed to gather. Stark himself mostly looked as tired as Bucky felt and communicated with Steve and the others as little as he could.

They all worked together professionally, but it was obvious that there was a rift between them personally that would not be repaired easily. Bucky just watched as much as possible.

Command on the field had been taken over by Rhodes, who was a good leader as far as Bucky could tell. He was impartial, and his military training was more than obvious. Aside from that, he was also smart, seeing solutions to problems some of the others hadn’t even noticed yet and accepting input from any of them where necessary. Bucky knew Steve disliked not being in command anymore, and he’d been given a few warnings for trying to take the lead when he shouldn’t have, but honestly? This looked like the better solution for everyone, and Bucky wasn’t going to argue it.

During his time with the Avengers, he’d fought multiple robots, some genetically manipulated or mutated animals and plants and even, on one memorable occasion, an actual displaced dinosaur. The actual smile on Stark’s face had been better than the barrage of jokes that Barton had managed to unleash, mostly aimed at Steve.

Still, if he’d known what this fight would bring, he would’ve stayed at the Compound. He didn’t even think anyone would have argued the decision.

“ _You killed my parents!_ ”

He ducked just in time to avoid the exploding ball of green magic flying at him. An explosion went off behind him, but he had no time to check if everything was alright. As it was, it was taking all of his considerable skills to make sure she didn’t hit him. Who knew what would happen if she did?

“Please, calm down and let’s talk about this!” Steve was trying to calm her down and make sure she didn’t hurt him, but it had very little effect on her.

Glowing green eyes were focused on Bucky alone. “There is nothing to talk about,” she sneered in response. “He killed my parents, and I will kill him in return. Stay out of my way and you won’t get hurt.”

Both Maximoff and Vision had been dealt with quickly, owing to them being some of the biggest threats. They seemed to be unconscious, and Bucky rather hoped the effects could be reversed. Wilson’s wings had been disabled, and no physical attack any of them tried had any effect on the young woman. A glowing green shield kept out any threats while she shot ball after ball of magic at Bucky, driving him into a corner. Lang and Romanoff had both tried to breach the shield, and both of them were on the ground along with Maximoff and Vision by now.

“That wasn’t him!” Steve tried again, and Bucky was glad he didn’t have the time to cringe the way he felt like doing. It had been an ongoing argument that made him more uncomfortable every time Steve said it, and it was no better now that the daughter of some of his former victims was trying to kill him.

For the first time, their enemy actually moved her attention from Bucky. The way she bared her teeth at Steve made it very clear what she thought about him. “Like _hell_ it wasn’t him. _I SAW HIM KILL THEM!_ ”

Steve only barely managed to avoid the ball of magic she sent at him, diving to the side and rolling so he got right back up again. “Violence doesn’t solve anything!”

“ _Rhodey, the area is destabilizing,_ ” the voice of Iron Man came over the comms. Once it had become clear that his weapons would have no effect either, Rhodes had sent him off to get civilians to safety and make sure as few things as possible would end up getting destroyed. “ _There’s a few buildings about to go down, and one more hit to that theater by Barnes and it’ll bring down half the block with it._ ”

He could hear Rhodes curse as both he and Steve dodged another blast, though he’d tried his best to relocate to make sure the blast would hit something other than the theater. Since there was no sounds of falling buildings, he figured he’d managed in time.

“ _Nothing is hitting her!_ ” Wilson called in response.

“ _Then **distract her somewhere safe** , because this is going down._” Bucky could hear the frustration in Stark’s voice. He could imagine this brought back some terrible memories for the man as well.

“ _Iron Man, is there anywhere around that’s somewhat safe to be fighting?_ ” Rhodes had been making sure their fallen teammates wouldn’t get hurt, but the suit couldn’t carry all of them at the same time. Between fending off attacks and making sure no rubble hit anyone, Bucky had caught glimpses of him working on Wilson’s wings. When next to Stark’s genius, it was sometimes easy to forget Rhodes had been to MIT as well.

The comms were silent for a few seconds. “ _The area we fought those Doombots last month has been cleared of rubble, but no reconstruction’s been going on yet. It’s a few miles away, but that’s the closest without going through the more densely populated areas._ ”

“ _Barnes, do you know where to run?_ ”

“Affirmative,” he replied to Rhodes. He had made sure to study the maps of New York as their most common place of fighting, though in his time off Bucky had also made sure to study other areas that could be of interest.

“ _Alright, we need to distract her to give him a head start. Wilson, you -_ ”

One of their team’s most common problems was the fact that Steve was still very overprotective of him, even in the field. Another one was the fact that Steve wasn’t quite ready to accept that he wasn’t the team leader anymore. “We aren’t using Bucky as _bait_!” Steve was also great at short-term tactical thinking, but not so much for long-term strategic planning.

His shield hit one of the buildings behind the enemy Bucky had privately dubbed ‘the Jade Witch’, which left about half of it tumbling down onto the force-field surrounding her. It startled her, distracted her even, but not for long and not enough to stop her shielding herself for even a moment. Whatever Steve’s plan had been, the shockwave she released in her rage probably hadn’t been it.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Rhodes and Wilson fly through the air and into the building behind them. Then he crashed into the theater Stark had already warned them was on the edge of collapsing. Which, of course, it promptly did, along with most of the rest of the area.

Pained groans filled the comms, though Bucky himself remained silent as he assessed his situation. It wasn’t looking good, though. One of his legs was trapped, and while he was sure he could force it out from under the rubble, he could also feel very clearly that would probably end with a break that would leave him unable to run the way he needed to for too long, even with the serum healing it.

As it were, he was out of time, considering the ball of green energy he could see flying at him.

Just before it hit him, a figure in red and gold appeared in front of him, holding what appeared to be half a wall and trying to shield him. It broke apart, and Bucky saw Stark fly right over him and into the rubble, but none of the magic hit him.

With everyone else out of commission at the moment, the Jade Witch was focused solely on Bucky again, though Stark trying to get up seemed to get some of her attention.

“Why are you protecting him?” Her voice was incredulous, matching the look on her face. “ _He killed your parents too._ ”

In the end, she didn’t seem to care about the answer, turning her attention back to her original target. With Bucky unable to move to defend himself, all she needed was one final shot at him. The green swirled ominously, both in her hands and in her eyes. “The Winter Soldier.” She sneered. Then, she threw her magic straight at him. “I hope you freeze to death.”

Bucky pulled at his leg, but he wasn’t getting free fast enough. He wouldn’t be getting out of this. In the distance, he could hear Steve scream.

Just as he threw his hands up in front of himself, he could see the red and gold move to take the brunt of the attack again. Then everything swirled green, closing in from the edges of his eyes until it was all black and he knew nothing at all.

❄ _Falling Snow_ ❄

The first thing he noticed when awareness returned, even before opening his eyes, was that it was cold. Freezing, even.

For a moment, Bucky was terrified that he was back in cryo, aware but unable to move or feel anything but the endless cold. But there was wind, cutting at the bits of skin that were exposed, and it was what gave him the courage to open his eyes.

White.

It seemed to be everywhere. There were no landmarks he could see anywhere to give away his location, just flat white land. An attempt to move did have him realizing that at least some of the rubble that had been on top of him had come along and was still trapping his leg, decreasing his chances of survival even further.

Just as he was about to start yanking, a voice sounded behind him. “Hold up, Barnes.” The elegant form of Iron Man appeared in the corner of his eye, getting closer to the where he was trapped. “You pull too hard, you might end up breaking it.”

Bucky remained quiet as Stark removed the debris, freeing him. Rather than focusing on the pain in his leg, he inspected the area around them. Now that he could turn, he could see the mess that had come along with them, but it was the only distinctive thing anywhere close. Worse, it was quickly getting covered with snow already, the storm around them not letting up.

Looking at Iron Man himself, it was clear to see something wasn’t entirely right, though Stark was still moving around with the heavy suit. “Any ideas on how to get out of here?” He tested how much weight his leg could hold - probably not broken, which meant that he could just ignore any pain he felt in order to do what needed to be done. Bucky was an expert at that, after all, and he wouldn’t last long with the temperature like this. He wondered if Stark could, in the suit.

“The bad news is that most of the wiring is fried, which means no flying and no connection to anyone else. The good news is that the reworking I did means I can still move around. It means we’re not getting out of here, but I _can_ help build an igloo that’ll probably keep us safe enough to make it through the worst. Any rescue right now would be doomed to fail anyway, what with the storm.” While speaking, Stark was already moving around and marking out a circle in the snow some 8 feet in diameter as part of the suit fell away into what looked to be a sharp knife. “I’ll cut, you start stacking them.”

That was probably the best idea, considering Stark was an engineer and looked like he actually knew what he was doing. So, following his concise instructions, Bucky built his first igloo in the middle of the worst snowstorm he had ever seen, hoping they would finish it before either of them succumbed to the cold. Considering the chattering of teeth he could hear in Stark’s voice occasionally, he didn’t think the suit had heating still up.

“Alright,” Stark spoke up once they had gotten closer to the top. “You get in, cut some small crescent-shaped holes near the top so we’ll have some ventilation. Not the top layer, but high enough that any snowfall won’t quickly block it. Also…” He no doubt used some of the suit’s strength to be able to make the jump over the walls they had made so far. Then, he started grabbing some of the rubble that had made it to their new location as well. “Once you’re done with that, go ahead and work on some sort of heightened floor or bench or something so we’re not directly on the ground, over to the side there. You okay with that?”

Nodding, Bucky clenched his teeth and ignored the pain in his leg as he jumped in. He instantly noticed the difference the lack of wind made already, though some snow was still falling inside. Stark was working on that, though.

Alright. Small, crescent-shaped holes, he could do this. He was rather proud of himself for thinking to make sure they wouldn’t be directed the same way as where the wind was coming from, so they would get fresh air without it directly blowing at them. As he finished cutting the holes, the snow stopped. Bucky looked up to find that Stark had closed off the igloo, leaving him inside by himself.

Tempting though it was to worry about Stark, he told himself the man knew what he was doing and Bucky still had a job to finish.

Most of what had made it with them was loose bricks, but it looked like his leg had been trapped under one of a few steel bars that would make his job considerably easier. Using the bricks and bars to build a base to hold them off the floor without trapping the air underneath (and making sure it would not be the lowest thing in their igloo, which he thought was the purpose of it), bending a few of the bars to make more use of their size, he then laid out the leftover concrete over it to provide something between a floor, a low table and a bed. He hoped it was good enough.

Then, he sat down to wait and to give his leg some time to heal. Bucky hoped the others were alright, considering things hadn’t been looking too great back in New York. Hopefully, upon managing to hit him, she would’ve left the rest alone.

He was still unclear on why Stark had even gotten in front of him, though he was grateful. No doubt he’d have ended up a lot worse without the man there, what with his leg and his having no idea how to build an igloo. Bucky would’ve dug his way into the snow, trying to make a bit of a shelter that way, but he also realized that he would’ve had no idea what to do about getting snowed in. Not to mention the fact that he still had no idea where he was, or how to communicate to any of the others where he was. If he’d have survived the snowstorm, he probably would’ve ended up walking and seeing where he ended up. All things considered, the likelihood of his survival wouldn’t have been very high.

Movement put him on alert, until he realized it was the Iron Man armor digging its way into the igloo, on the other side from where Stark had told him to build. It looked as though Stark had dug a small tunnel from the outside, under the igloo’s wall.

“Looks good,” he told Bucky upon seeing the plateau he’d put together. Then, he pulled off the helmet of the armor. “Now to see how we’ll deal with all of this.”

“Do you have a way of contacting the others?” Bucky asked him, suppressing shivers. They might be out of the wind now, but the igloo was still cold on the inside. Even his higher than average body temperature didn’t help all that much.

Stark grinned at him easily. “I will. First things first, though…”

Putting down the helmet, he moved on to the arms of the suit, stripping those off as well. When the chestplate and the back came off next, Bucky noticed he seemed to only be wearing a tight undersuit that did not look very warm. “Are you sure you’ll be okay like this?” he wondered out loud.

“Not for long,” the other admitted easily. Bucky could see his muscles clenching as he tried to suppress his shivers. “But I need to work on a few things, and the armor needs to be off for that.”

Part of the arm was pulled away, revealing a small set of basic tools. “You have those with you everywhere?” he wondered, though it did make sense. Even more so than the Iron Man suit, Bucky knew Stark’s greatest power was his inventiveness, and having tools around to make that easier was only smart.

The other man only nodded, focusing on whatever he was working on in the chestplate. It was easy to see it wasn’t going great, however. Stark had been out in the wind longer than Bucky had, and he could see the pale hue to his skin and lips. He frowned.

“If you - ” He cut himself off, unsure. When he saw Stark’s hand skitter past wherever he was aiming the screwdriver, however, he steeled himself. “Would it help if you sat against me? For body heat, I mean. I run hotter than usual - that is, my body temperature is higher, which could help…”

Oddly enough, Stark looked almost concerned. “Are you sure about that?”

Bucky nodded. Whatever Stark thought his hesitation was about, the reality of it shouldn’t warrant concern, so he clearly had it wrong somewhere.

Stark’s movements were cautious, pulling the supplies with him and slowly sitting down between Bucky’s legs, back to chest. Even through his clothes, Bucky could feel how cold he was, and he was doubly glad he’d offered. Honestly, Stark had probably saved his life earlier, so this felt like it was the least he could do.

It was somewhat awkward, though, sitting there in silence and practically cuddling Stark while he worked. He remembered going by for arm maintenance, and the way Stark was either talking to him about what he was doing or interacting with FRIDAY. “So… what are you working on?” He made sure it didn’t sound accusing, knowing how sensitive the other could be sometimes. Then again, considering how Steve and his friends talked to him sometimes, Bucky couldn’t blame him.

“Well, first I have to get some of the basic functions of the suit working again…” Now that he was back to work again, and already looking significantly more comfortable, the words seemed to come by themselves. “Can’t really afford to freeze to death, after all. Then there’s the alert to work on - I’m thinking of setting up a basic beacon for FRIDAY to find first and, if we’re still not out of here in a day or so, I can go back and work on a way to communicate anyway. Then I’ll see about making sure to convert some of the armor into stuff we’ll need… I’ve got systems in the suit for when nature calls, but I’m pretty sure you don’t, and going out there could kill you… And we also need to make sure we have some system for melting down some snow so we keep hydrated, at least, though there’s not much we can do about food except the few energy bars that we’ve got… Then again, not as important as drinking anyway...” All of them had some well-secured energy bars for when they needed them in long fights. Bucky knew the water was more important, and there was plenty of snow around to make sure that shouldn’t be a problem.

As he worked, Stark kept rambling on about what he was doing, and possible things to do if the snow wouldn’t let up. There was something soothing about it, and a lingering tension from the fight and then the cold started to dissipate. Stark was warming up in front of him, no longer shivering.

“There,” he finally said, before attaching the chestpiece and a part of the back again. “Personal heating problem and a few other thing solved. Next up, activating the emergency beacon…”

Bucky estimated they spent some hours like that, Stark working on the suit and repurposing it for several useful functions, including the mentioned emergency beacon and a sort of emergency toilet for Bucky (which made him blush despite trying not to - on the bright side, he was seated at Stark’s back, so the man probably hadn’t noticed). He was now working on a melting pot for snow so they would have something to drink and had nearly finished it already, sometimes asking Bucky to bend one part of the suit or another to make things work better.

Even in this situation, it was amazing to watch him work. He used part of his gauntlet for soldering, and Bucky was in awe of the detailing he could do with what seemed like a heavy-duty weapon.

“It’s real impressive what you can do with what seems like so little,” he found himself saying out loud.

Stark was silent for a few moments. “Thanks, I guess?” he replied, sounding as though he was unsure whether it had been a compliment or an insult. “The first suit was made with remains of weapons, and now that it’s many incarnations later, there’s so much in there that there’s not a whole lot I couldn’t manage with it.” He shrugged, almost as though trying to brush it off.

An awkward silence fell, and Bucky had no idea what to say. Well, he did have some idea, considering they hadn’t really talked at all since the rogue Avengers had returned to America, except mission-related information. Steve had worked very hard to keep the two of them apart, shooting Stark suspicious looks as though he was about to attack Bucky the moment Steve let his friend out of his sight. Bucky quite honestly figured Stark deserved to get a few hits in, all things considered, but he wasn’t likely to tell Steve that. The last thing he wanted was another rousing speech about how all of the murders he’d committed, the murders he _vividly remembered committing_ , weren’t his fault. Sometimes he wondered if Steve even cared about his victims at all, or if he just preferred to think of them as vague statistics.

The lack of Steve meant this was his chance. The fact that they were in the middle of a survival situation meant he had to go about things carefully, lest he chase Stark out into the cold (or he got chased out, but from what he’d seen of Stark, the man was far more likely to remove himself from the situation).

He waited until the snow-melting device was done and even watched as Stark gathered some snow to turn into water for them to drink.

As it started to dissolve, he spoke up. “I…” Bucky took a deep breath. “I wanted to apologize. About your parents. And about hurting you. And about leaving you behind. That wasn’t… I’m sorry. About all of that.”

It actually made Stark turn around to face him, a frown on his face, though he made no move to get away from Bucky yet. “It’s not…” Then, he shook himself, clearly thinking. “I’m not even sure where to start with that. Thanks, for apologizing. And you’re forgiven. And I want to apologize as well, for attacking you. That wasn’t right.”

“You had just watched me… murdering your parents. I don’t think you should be apologizing for that.” If anything, Bucky was grateful. While he’d wanted to hurt them, he had no illusions that Stark had used the full power of the suit. In fact, the one moment he had was when Bucky had tried to rip out his heart, and the only thing damaged was HYDRA’s damned arm. He knew Stark could have killed him and Steve if he had gone all-out.

“It’s… something I have struggled with,” Stark confessed. “My reaction was understandable - I’m still not sure if there was a way things could have gone differently, considering the emotions involved. And I understand, and I’ve even mostly forgiven myself for acting the way I did. But that doesn’t make it right. I still went to hurt you, and I do regret that now. And you definitely have the right not to forgive me for it.” It was obvious to see that he was uncomfortable talking about it, but he didn’t turn back around or look away from Bucky. Seriously, he’d clearly never had his full attention on Bucky this way before, because those eyes did things to him.

“I just… I remember it… them… And then there was that girl today…” Bucky did look away then, eyes seeking out anything to distract him.

Stark sighed. “Yeah, kind of the same. You didn’t have much of a choice to do what you did, but you remember all of them and regret them. But it still hurt others, and they’re not obliged to forgive you - though I do, as mentioned. Thing is - and this took me a while to realize as well - it’s still not okay to go hurting people just because you got hurt. Especially when it also hurts innocent people. One of the problems of superheroes is that we go for a physical fight, or solution, or anything… We do that way too quickly. It’s almost scary, especially considering the damage we can do…”

That was very true. Hell, Bucky knew his point of view was already somewhat distorted, what with having a best friend whose solution to a problem was always to punch it until it stopped being a problem and having lived through a war where more extreme actions were sanctioned than in peacetime, and he was still unsettled with the amount of fighting going on around the Avengers.

“Do you ever get tired of all the fighting?” he asked, honestly curious.

A scoff. “From the moment I started.” And didn’t he know that feeling intimately.

Bucky looked down at the other. “How d’you keep going anyway?” He might have been at this for a long time, but in the end, Iron Man’s pilot was only a civilian. If he managed to keep going, Bucky should be able to, as well.

“You know, I kind of want to give you some sort of inspiring and heroic answer, but the truth is, I just feel I have to.” His mouth pulled into some sort of half-smirk, self-deprecating. “There’s things that need to be done, that can be done… People that need to be saved and that can be saved. And I can do some of those things. At the very least, I can try my best.”

His eyes flashed away, and Bucky knew there was something he wasn’t saying. He thought he might know exactly what it was. “You feel like you don’t deserve to stop.”

Stark - Tony - swallowed, and looked away, but he didn’t confirm or deny. He didn’t have to.

“Yeah,” Bucky mumbled, and held the other even closer. Tony leaned into it, closing his eyes and sighing. From this close, the dark circles under his eyes were all the more obvious.

They weren’t so different, the two of them. If Bucky had to guess, he thought both of them would rather be off somewhere peaceful, never having to worry about having to fight again. But they both felt they didn’t deserve that peace because of the things they had done before, or the things they _hadn’t_.

“Is that why you brought us back, too?” Those pardons hadn’t come out of nowhere, and Bucky knew very well T’Challa didn’t have the political pull after Bucharest to manage something like that. Instead, Tony had been the one visiting the officers he and Steve had hurt in his escape, and donating to repair the bridge they’d destroyed. Even on the television, it had been obvious how much it cost him to do that and fulfill all of his other obligations.

“The world needs them,” was all the explanation he gave, but Bucky heard a lot more that he didn’t say.

He couldn’t even quite disagree. He’d seen, after the fact, what had happened in New York to have the Avengers come together. He’d seen the years after, where threat after supernatural threat had shown up. Earth and its people needed as many defenders as possible. And however stupidly Steve had gone about the entire Civil War thing, however much the world doubted it in the time after, in his mind it had always been about protecting people.

Still, it couldn’t have been easy for Tony. It probably still wasn’t, even if Steve wasn’t team leader anymore and wasn’t the one who told him what to do. Working with people who had refused to listen, who had fought him and his friends…

The entire thing had been a mess, but it seemed as though those who had remained on Tony’s side were the only ones paying for any of it. Vision was more awkward than ever and unsure around Maximoff, Rhodes walked with braces, and Tony himself was working himself to exhaustion in a hostile environment that wasn’t even half his fault.

At that moment, Bucky decided that Tony might have forgiven him, and he might even be able to forgive himself for what had happened, but he wouldn’t forget. And he would make up for what he’d done. But he could see how Tony was running himself into the ground, trying to make up for being human instead of more, and one of the ways he was going to make up for everything would be making sure that he wouldn’t have to do it alone. Even if that did mean having a discussion with Steve on how to work as a team.

Maybe, he could even see about getting closer to Tony. The man looked as though he could use some real friends around him, after all. And sleep.

As they both started to nod off, he noticed the soft smile pulling at the corners of Tony’s lips. Perhaps, he thought before sleep claimed him, Tony wouldn’t even mind having him around. He was awesome at giving hugs, if nothing else. Hugs were good.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to come say hi on my [Tumblr page](https://eirlyssa.tumblr.com/).
> 
> I have also been considering doing a sort of '12 days of Christmas' giveaway, where you can give me prompts and I will write twelve short fics to fill the ones that call out to me that I will be posting from Christmas on. If you have a Christmas-y/New Years-y/festive Tony-centric prompt that you would like to see filled, feel free to leave it for my consideration!


End file.
